The Evolution of the Christmas Garment #1

…..or Tacky Christmas Sweater circa 1988

You remember the late 1980’s don’t you? Over-sized sweaters with super long sleeves or a huge t-shirt with leggings, a French braid tight enough to give you an instant face-lift tied off with a coordinating scrunchy? It was only cool to have one strap of your over-alls over a shoulder and one strap of a back-pack engaged.

Enter tacky Christmas sweater number one:

I initially tried for the 80’s big hair too (a.k.a. radar bangs) but it was a fail so that’s a good old French braid you can’t see on the back of my head.

Another view. Now girls, you surely know that I know exactly what I look like in this get-up. I harbour no illusions of refinement or glamour.

What’s an 80’s look without the slouch socks!!

You might notice that I didn’t label it an ugly Christmas sweater. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Today’s sweater is made of a really soft blend of ramie and cotton. The pattern is partly knit in but also hand embroidered with multiple kinds of of metallic thread, pearl cotton and ramie, using satin and bullion stitches, French knots and detailed with real glass beads and a bare minimum of iridescent sequins. The thread could be real gold for all I know. The workmanship is excellent. But it is not my colour and it makes me look fat so I can uncategorically say that it is ugly. Even so, I wore it all morning until the house warmed up. By the way, Lance said the radar bangs make it look more like a Halloween photo shoot than a Christmas one.

May the farce be with you.

Apologies to any persons who have toiled over the embroidery on this sweater or any other that may have fallen out of fashion.

What I’m Reading Now

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje ♥♥♥♥
Half Broken Things by Morag Joss ♥♥♥½
Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely ♥♥
The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter ♥♥♥½
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner ♥♥♥♥♥
The Devil You Know by Wayne Johnson ♥♥♥
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent ♥♥♥♥
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes ♥♥♥♥½
A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz ♥♥♥♥
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim ♥♥♥½
No. 13 Washington Square by Leroy Scott ♥♥½
Christopher Carson by John SC Abbott♥♥♥♥
Lucien Freud, Eyes Wide Open by Phoebe Hoban ♥♥½
The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman ♥♥♥♥
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard ♥♥♥♥
Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King ♥♥♥♥
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (audio) ♥♥♥♥
Into the Deep Unknown - Land of the Tent Dwellers by Mike Parker♥♥♥ (great [pictures)
The Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell (audio)♥♥♥1/2
Back Fire by Catherine Coulter (audio book)♥♥♥
In the Mersey Woods published by the paper company
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (audio book)♥♥♥♥
The Kite Runner (audio book)♥♥♥♥♥
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥1/2
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥1/2
The Round House by Louise Erdrich ♥♥♥♥
Empire Falls by Richard Russo ♥♥♥
Dear Everbody by Anne Budgell ♥♥♥♥
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera ♥♥
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner ♥♥♥♥♥
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi ♥♥♥♥♥